In recent years, there have been significant advances in both wireless communication technology and computer processing technology. For example, both portable and cellular phones are now in wide use. There has also been some initial progress in developing wireless headset technology. In addition, with each passing year, computers are becoming smaller and more powerful. Recently, there has been a great effort to develop personal digital assistants (PDA's) which provide palm size computational ability.
Unfortunately, to date, PDA's have not met with significant commercial success. Even though the processing power in these small devices is remarkable, they are expensive, bulky and require a reasonable amount of computer knowledge to operate. Although these devices are often touted as being able to recognize handwritten data, the capabilities are still rudimentary since handwriting analysis requires significant processing capability and speed still unavailable in a portable device. In addition, it does not appear that any of the present PDA's include speech recognition systems since this feature would require even more processing power.
There has also been significant development in portable hand-held data entry communicators. The most ubiquitous of these devices now appear in restaurants. A waiter taking an order will enter a code into the device representing the order (often spelling the item chosen from the menu). When the customer requests a change to the standard offering, additional data entry is required which can take a significant amount of time. The information entered into the terminal is processed and then transmitted to the kitchen or bar, typically by infrared technology. The information is displayed so that the staff can fill the order.
This system allows the restaurant to control food inventory. However, it is cumbersome and cannot provide any data feedback to the waiter with information such as current availability, length of time to completion, or even permit questions or submission of special instructions concerning the order. In addition, the cost of the terminals is not insignificant since computational capability is required.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to create a system which allows both speech and data communication (including unprocessed transducer signals) between a remote location and a central station.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a system where a personal terminal functions for system access and as a relay for unprocessed voice and data information.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a system where the computational capabilities of a remote, hand-held terminal are essentially eliminated so that the terminal can be lightweight and low in cost.
It is still a further object of the subject invention to provide a system where the central station can process data and transmit the result back to the remote terminal for display.
It is still a further object of the subject invention to provide a system which includes a headset for adding voice communication to the data transfer to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
It is still another object of the subject invention to provide speech recognition software in the central station for decoding analog voice signals into machine readable format.
It is still a further object of the subject invention to provide a system wherein the central station can reformat the decoded voice information for retransmission and display on the remote terminal.